Commit to a mission that stirs your soul

Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life

December 30, 1998

This article isn't about politics, although it quotes a prominent political figure. It's actually about our purpose in life - a healing purpose. Here are words from Elizabeth Dole, former United States Secretary of Transportation, in an address earlier this year to students at Smith College: "On whatever path you now choose, I urge you to commit to a mission that stirs your soul. To be truly absorbed releases us from the limitations of ego. It melts the ice of apathy and cynicism. It gives purpose to our freedom and direction to our gifts, turning life into an honorable adventure and a source of joy. And ... it brings fulfillment to our lives."

What if everyone graduating from high school or college, or embarking on a new career, or considering a midlife job change, or simply thinking about what should come next in life, or perhaps retiring from a 40-year span in the work force, took Mrs. Dole's words to heart? The world would likely be a different place. So would our cities, our neighborhoods, and our homes. Our moments and our days would be transformed. Emptiness would go away.

And what if we added something even more - something which would help define that commitment "to a mission that stirs [our] soul"? What if the mission was ultimately about all of us being healers? Think of what it could mean if people in every walk of life - business people, construction workers, homemakers, computer programmers, clergymen and women, engineers, professional secretaries, chemists, farmers, attorneys, junior citizens and senior, schoolteachers, florists, and, yes, politicians - brought a healing mission to what they do.

I've actually known people in each of the occupations mentioned above who do bring a vision of their individual role as spiritual healers to their work. The mission of healing, they've found, isn't something left only to a select, gifted few. They're proving that, in fact, we're all "gifted." God generously bestows on each of His children the spiritual vision and the unlimited capacity to love that are at the core of all genuine healing.

What exactly is meant by "healing"? First, it's much more than physical healing, although it certainly does include establishing health in place of sickness in our bodies. (One dictionary defines healing as making sound or whole, but also as restoring original purity or integrity.) We're really talking here about practicing the spiritual healing that redeems, regenerates, brings newness of life to human experience, spiritualizes consciousness, makes better men and women. It's following the way, the example, and the teachings of Jesus. It's taking an inspired, spiritual view to all that we do - realizing that we are truly God's spiritual representative, His own image and likeness. It's bringing prayer to the forefront in guiding our work, our words, our thoughts. It's a yielding to the will of God, divine Truth and Love, through the course of each day.

All of this has a tremendous effect. Limitations fall away. Progress becomes natural. Joy comes. Peace is made real. People's lives are blessed, uplifted, turned to God. And the world truly does become a better place.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science and was a deeply committed Christian healer, once quoted the Roman scholar Pliny; he wrote that what makes human life noble and purposeful includes "doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read; and rendering the world happier and better for having lived in it." Then Mrs. Eddy commented, "Strive thou for the joy and crown of such a pilgrimage - the service of such a mission" ("The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Pg. 150).

Today, each of us can commit, or re-commit, ourselves "to a mission that stirs [our] soul." We can be healers. There is no more honorable adventure, no greater source of joy, no greater blessing to others.

You can visit the home page of The First Church of Christ, Scientist: www.tfccs.com